But?But?But?But?But?

Oct 11, 2004

I read a piece after the first debate by &lt;a target=new href=”http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/”>James Taranto&lt;/a> at OpinionJournal.com, and it gave me an idea after this debate, because what were the two most commonly used words? Well, what was the most common word John Kerry uttered in the debate on Friday night? The most common word? He used one word more than any other word, not only in Friday night’s debate in St. Louis, but in the previous debate, wherever the hell it was. I don’t remember. Where was the first debate? I don’t even remember. See? That’s what we remember about debates. Nevertheless, what was the most common word, Mr. Snerdley? (program observer interruption) No, I’ll… (program observer interruption. No, it… (program observer interruption) Miami, that’s right, Coral Gables. Okay, since you can’t get the easy one, what was the most common word, I’ll give you an easier one: What was the most common phrase that he used? The most common phrase that Kerry used in the debate on Friday night was “I have a plan.” “I have a plan! I have a plan! I have plan! I have a plan!” But the most common word Kerry used was “but.” Everything he said had a “but” in it or a qualifier. “I believe we should have gotten Saddam but…” “I believe in tax cuts, but…” So what I instructed Cookie to do for this debate was put together a little montage of some, not all, we don’t have time. The debate was an hour and a half. We’d have to spend 45 minutes here with a montage of Kerry. But I’ve put together enough to illustrate what I’m talking about in terms of — you may say, “So what? He used the word ‘but.'” The point is whatever he says he doesn’t have the confidence to let it stand, wants to qualify it wants to be on as many sides of any issue as he can, and this is where he gets into this area of contradicting himself saying all these different things about one issue. Here is just a sample montage of what I’m talking about.KERRY: The Patriot Act, I support it, but I just don’t like the way John Ashcroft has applied it. I’ve never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat, believed it in 1998 when Clinton was president, but I would have used that force wisely. I will never stop at anything to hunt down and kill the terrorists. But you heard the president just say to you that we’ve added money. Folks, the test is not if you’ve added money. I don’t support a draft, but let me tell you where you president’s policies have put us. Go to JohnKerry.com and you’ll find a tort reform plan. Yes, it’s a problem. Do we need to fix it particularly for OB-GYNs and for brain surgeons and others? Yes. But it’s less than 1% of the total cost of health care. We should look at the punitive and we should have some limitations, but look what’s really important is the president’s just trying to scare everybody here. We’re throwing labels around. The Kyoto treaty was flawed. I was in Kyoto and I was part of it. I know what happened, but this president didn’t try to fix it. You can’t stop all outsourcing, I never promised that and I’m not going to because that would be pandering, you can’t. But what you can do is create a fair playing field. &lt;a target=new href=”//home/menu/kerry0.member.html#0003″>I believe in the Patriot Act&lt;/a>. We need to be stronger on terrorism, but you know what we also need to do as Americans is never let the terrorists change the Constitution of the United States. Religion has been a huge part of my life, it helped lead me through a war, it leads me today, but I can’t take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it.RUSH: Stop, stop, stop the tape. Let me help you with this. There’s still more to come, but when you hear the word “but,” the way you need to listen to this is, every time he says “but,” it means, “Forget what I just said, because it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything because I’m qualifying now, ‘but.'” When you hear but, cancel out what you just heard him say because it’s about change. KERRY: I can talk to people about making other choices and about abstinence and all these other things that we ought to do as a responsible society, but as a president I have to represent all the people in the nation. No Child Left Behind Act, I voted for it and I support it, but the president has underfunded it. I believe that you can take that position and not be pro-abortion, but you have to afford people their constitutional rights. The president just said, My opponent’s against, this my opponent’s against that,” you know, it’s just not that simple. No I’m not. I’m against the partial-birth abortion, but you’ve gotta have an exception. I’ll never give a veto over American security to any other entity, not a nation, not a country, not an institution, but I know as I think you do that our country is strongest when we lead the world, when we lead strong alliances. I will not stop in our effort to hunt down and kill the terrorists, but I’ll also have a better plan. I believe America’s best days are ahead of us. I’m an optimist, but–

RUSH: And there you have it. That’s John Kerry. Now, some people like that. You have to understand, this is how he says everything to everybody. This is how he gets away with being all things to all people, and when you have a group of people out there who don’t like, you know, firm lines of demarcation between right and wrong, good and bad, a guy like John Kerry comes along with his qualifications makes everybody feel happy. “Okay, he’s going to do that, but he’s not going to do it quite as bad. Oh, he’s going to do that, but he’s going to do it better. Oh, he doesn’t agree with that, but…” This is, I think, a technique that appeals to the undecideds. It’s not just a technique; it’s actually who he is. He doesn’t have the conviction. He doesn’t have a core to stand firm on anything, as has been amply illustrated throughout this campaign. But undecideds, if you can’t make up your mind by now, what are you saying? “Well, I like Bush, but… Well, I like Kerry, but… Well, I don’t think Kerry is, but…” So, you know, probably one of the most common uttered words among the undecided is “but,” because they’re sitting out there trying to figure things out, but this, but that. I just wanted to illustrate this to you because this is not the kind of job that you need a guy whose #1 most often used word is “but,” because you’re never going to know where the guy is going to go and take the rest of us with him. You’re never going to be able to pin him down, even after he does something, “Well, yes, I did that, but…”BREAK TRANSCRIPTRUSH: I’ve got another little montage here for you. This is a ten second montage and it comes from Friday night’s debate and it’s John Kerry contradicting himself at one point in the debate and then at another point in the debate. Have one, two, three, four sentences. The first three are contradicted by the last. This happened I don’t know how many minutes apart, but same debate Friday night in St. Louis. Here’s John Kerry.KERRY: I’ve never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat. […] Well, the president has been preoccupied with Iraq where there wasn’t a threat.RUSH: From the same debate Friday night! Here’s &lt;a target=new href=”http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041010/REPOSITORY/410100384/1013/NEWS03″>Dick Cheney in Florida&lt;/a> on Saturday trying to comprehend this.CHENEY: On page 5, “I’ve never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam was a threat. I’ve always believed he was a threat,” and on page 12, “The president’s been preoccupied with Iraq where there wasn’t a threat.” That’s unbelievable. It’s… well, it’s mind-boggling.RUSH: You don’t know what to say. What in the world do you say about that? What you want to say is, are you people listening? Are you people paying attention? You undecideds, are you paying attention to this? By the way, there’s a new &lt;a target=new href=”http://reuters.myway.com/article/20041011/2004-10-11T114046Z_01_N10496528_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CAMPAIGN-POLL-DC.html”>Zogby poll&lt;/a> out, Bush down three. It’s the only poll that shows Bush down. The other polls, &lt;a target=new href=”http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&amp;storyID=6433433″>ABC&lt;/a> and &lt;a target=new href=”http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Presidential_Tracking_Poll.htm”>Rasmussen&lt;/a> have Bush up anywhere from five to six; Zogby’s got him down three. Six percent undecided in the Zogby. Zogby says that the majority of the undecideds are leaning Kerry. So that’s the latest on the polling data. Here’s Joe Lockhart now. He was on Stephanopoulos’ show yesterday and tried to explain this, what you just heard: Iraq was a threat. I’ve never changed my mind. I do believe Saddam was a threat. The president was preoccupied with Iraq, where there wasn’t a threat. Stephanopoulos says, “Joe, Cheney is not misreading the transcript. It’s exactly what the transcript says. That’s what John Kerry said.”LOCKHART: Well, listen, the president also said in this debate, “I was disappointed when I found out that Saddam Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.” Now, how could a president of the United States be disappointed when he finds out that a sworn enemy, a madman doesn’t have chemical and biological weapons?

RUSH: (Laughing.) They can’t defend Kerry. They have to run out and make some sort of attempted semantical point against George W. Bush. So these things just continue to mount up. I mean, this is a history of John Kerry not just in this campaign but throughout his political life. Now, let’s move on to this New York Times Sunday Magazine. This was unbelievable. Did you see the picture? Did you see the picture on this thing? Well, it’s not the Botox. I mean, it’s not. What happened to the eyes? You know, it looks like what they did was have Teresa strip down nude right before they snapped the picture and Kerry’s eyes get wide and he can’t believe what he’s looking at. Did you see the eyes? That’s the amazing thing about that picture. Botox is one thing, but I’ve never seen that look on his face. I’ve never seen that look at all. Either that or they glued the eyelids open for the picture. Maybe it was &lt;a target=new href=”http://pelosi.house.gov”>Nancy Pelosi&lt;/a> they dragged in there and said, “Hey, take your clothes off for the presidential nominee.” It’s just more phoniness. Here’s a guy that we see in yet another pose that we’ve never seen before. Before we get to this New York Times, &lt;a target=new href=”http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html”>Sunday magazine&lt;/a>, did you see this piece also in the &lt;a target=new href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/politics/campaign/10wealth.html?hp&amp;ex=1097380800&amp;en=6b1e7554f06ed67d&amp;ei=5094&amp;partner=homepage”>New York Times&lt;/a>? One of the biggest puff pieces I’ve ever seen trying to explain how Kerry’s circumstantial, accidental, “Oh, gee, how about that?” marriages to wealthy women is now causing him a problem. It was just incredible, and then this New York Times piece goes on, you know, he has a very credible and forward-looking plan on Iraq but he’s just having trouble getting people to understand it, which is typical of the mainstream press. He’s so smart; he’s so much above the rest of us that we just can’t figure out what he’s saying and he can’t figure out a way to get down to our level so the New York Times tries in this piece. Now, you’ve got to listen to this excerpt. This is from the excerpt on the wealthy women that he just happened to marry. One of these unfortunate things, you know, that’s defined him. He goes out and marries these wealthy women. By the way, another thing, in this debate, how about insulting everybody in that audience by looking at them and assuming none of them make $200,000 a year or more? “Only three,” but that’s a lie. Only three of us in here are going to be qualified — or hit by my tax cut. Well, he won’t be hit by it because he doesn’t earn 200 grand, Teresa does, but he doesn’t, as a senator gets, what, 140K or something like that a year, 140,000. His own tax cut won’t affect him or his own tax increase won’t affect him. So there are only two people in there that are going to be affected, that’s Charlie Gibson and Bush, according to the way they look. Can you imagine, folks, if people called this program and I said, “You know, you sound like X. You sound like an X,” or whatever, to start judging people on the way they look, based on how they sound. How many people in that room were small business people, unless he knows that people in there were, you know, canvassed from the deep, dark, plundering, vanishing middle class, because of the Bush economic team. &lt;a target=new href=”http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6214022/site/newsweek/”>Robert Samuelson&lt;/a> had a piece in Newsweek over the weekend, or latest issue, whenever it is, that the middle class is doing just great, that the poverty figures, you know where they stem from? You know where poverty is in this country? Immigrants. Illegal and legal. The vast majority of poverty is among the immigrant class in this country, not the middle class of the United States. END TRANSCRIPT